White House

The Trump administration has released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which details current and potential climate change impacts on the U.S. While the report considers a range of scenarios, the administration has asserted it relies on an “extreme” scenario based on overly pessimistic assumptions.

The National Science and Technology Council published a report this month outlining goals for ocean science and technology through 2028. It identifies modernizing research infrastructure and improving coupled ocean-coastal-hydrology models as high priorities.

NASA’s renewed efforts to build a sustained human presence on and around the Moon have spurred plans to integrate lunar research with exploration and commercial activity. Meanwhile, international rivalries have prompted the Defense Department to reform its space activities, while that same competition puts pressure on NASA to pursue a more direct path to the lunar surface.

President Trump has made five new appointments to the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation. He has also renewed the terms of Geraldine Richmond and former Board Chair Maria Zuber.

A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change outlines the difficult path to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The Trump administration has neither rejected nor embraced the report, consistent with its generally ambivalent posture toward climate science.

European funders are forcing the issue on open-access publishing, while the Trump administration reviews U.S. policies on disseminating federally sponsored research.

The latest version of the National Defense Authorization Act contains numerous provisions that aim to enhance innovation in defense technologies and combat foreign efforts to exploit U.S. R&D. It postpones a proposal to reform the relationship between the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of Energy.

President Trump has signed legislation that updates the Department of Education’s $1.2 billion Career and Technical Education (CTE) program. The new law expands support for integrating STEM education into CTE efforts and complements recent White House initiatives focused on workforce development.

The White House’s latest annual R&D priorities memorandum again instructs federal agencies to prioritize “basic and early-stage applied research.” It also includes new sections on advanced computing, manufacturing, space exploration, agriculture, and technology commercialization.

President Trump’s choice of meteorologist Kelvin Droegemeier to lead the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has received widespread acclaim. Droegemeier has longstanding ties to the National Science Foundation and has contributed extensively to science policy at the national and state levels.